Phish
A Picture Of Nectar

THE REVIEW

I've guiltily just realized that DeBaser is missing a review of the "best album" (at least that's how it's defined almost everywhere) by Phish, the little-known (in Europe) "Picture of Nectar". Had I known, I would have started my career as a De-reviewer with this one. But oh well, it's done now. 

The album in question was released in 1992, and it is the third in the discography of the American jam band and perhaps the one that best represents them from all points of view. Before reaching this masterpiece, Phish had self-produced three albums exclusively on cassette (the first two were not officially released during the production years, but only later after gaining notoriety) and only one entirely official album, "Lawn Boy", which is thus considered by many as their actual debut.

If this "first" album, as already well illustrated in a DeBaserian review, already represents a great record with strong progressive shades blended with American folk tradition, its successor better embodies in every way the soul of Phish to follow from there on: the album is indeed a mix of genres and styles that make it nearly impossible to simply categorize and is also one of the few studio albums by this group that conveys the same strength and attitude that have made them one of the most highly regarded live acts ever.

The lack of a guiding thread and the courage to include in a purely pop-oriented album recorded in the studio songs that are very short or very long (ranging from the 40 seconds of "Catapult" to over 8 minutes of "Tweezer") have surely been rewarded by an exceptional result upon listening and analysis.

The album is captivating, melodic, listenable, and light, and at the same time, it is cultured, elaborate, technical, and interesting from any viewpoint one might observe it. If the emotional framework may seem a bit "frivolous," focused almost entirely on cheerful, humorous, and ironic contents (and partly autobiographical), the technical aspect can only attract applause and praise: the only criticism would be the noticeable heterogeneity of the material, but accusing a "jam band" of this would be like accusing water of being wet.

The tracks on the album are all remarkable and in the same way, there is no presence of fillers: it starts with the aggressive "Llama", featuring hard rock sounds applied to a track between bluegrass and country, continuing with a series of memorable pieces, many of which, 18 years and about a dozen albums later, still make up the core of Phish's concerts.

Absolutely noteworthy are "Cavern", "Guelah Papyrus", "Stash", and "Chalk Dust Torture", all four fast and lively tracks that alternate southern rock, country, funk, South American rhythms, and psychedelic-progressive diversions; similarly, "Eliza", a beautiful jazzy-pop exercise, "Glide", and "Poor Heart" are not to be overlooked, these being ironic revisitations of American vocal groups (to the "I Re Acuti" of Simpsons fame, for instance) and the less pretentious country.

The gems, however, are certainly "Tweezer" and "Tweezer Reprise", two furious rock jams that would make any other rock group of the last 20 years pale in comparison for inspiration, technical, executive, and compositional skills, and especially for the ability to engage and not bore for even 10 seconds of the total over 11 minutes duration of the two tracks, forming the basis from here on out of virtually all the live performances by Anastasio & Co. with performances often exceeding 20 minutes, indicating that the studio duration is absolutely not an end in itself, but rather well compressed and structured.

Before I finish, a nod to the production: the recording is good, the sounds are all well recognizable and dynamic, with very saturated sounds that recall the '70s, especially in the guitar sound, which sometimes is a bit too dominant over the rest of the instrumentation that would deserve more for the excellent level of the band's components. Especially the rhythm section could be more "pumped up" at times, at least to my taste. As for the cover, the depiction is that of an orange (or in any case an orange peel that resembles it closely) with extremely saturated colors. Perfectly matched to the group's "fresh", "lysergic", and "sunny" music, but not sweet and mellifluous.